LA JOLLA COVE FIREWORKS DARK THIS YEAR, BACK IN 2015

Lawsuit settled over environment review

Point Loma 
The show is off for this year, but the show will go on in the future.

That’s the word from Deborah Marengo, the main force behind the La Jolla Cove Fourth of July fireworks display.

The annual event is being canceled this year largely because of the effects of a lawsuit that challenged whether it and similar displays should have to undergo a full environmental quality review, she said.

The suit filed by environmental attorney Marco Gonzalez was recently settled with no such requirement, but the uncertainty surrounding the event left Marengo with insufficient time to find a show producer this year.

“I’m bummed,” Marengo said Thursday. “I’m sad that La Jolla is losing a community tradition this year, but we will start work immediately on July 5th to get things going for next year.”

For nearly three decades, residents of the seaside community have witnessed the fireworks display from Ellen Browning Scripps Park.

And while the show went on each of the past four years the lawsuit was under way, Marengo said the company that has been producing the show stepped aside this year and other pyrotechnic firms were already booked.

The lawsuit, filed by the Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation that Gonzalez founded, contended that the fireworks represented a threat to the marine environment and caused other harm and thus should have been subject to stringent reviews under the California Environmental Quality Act.

It was settled last month, and the city of San Diego has put in place guidelines for special events that do require such reviews. But the La Jolla Cove fireworks show isn’t one of those.

Attorney Robert Howard, who along with his firm represented the La Jolla Community Fireworks Foundation free of charge, said that the show requires a simple “ministerial” permit and no stringent environmental examination.

“There is no environmental harm,” Howard said. “They (the plaintiffs) simply wanted the event moved. One of our proudest achievements was we didn’t allow the litigation to stop the show, but the sad fact is it did have an effect on getting long-term sponsors and a show this year.”

Had the show gone on this year, the settlement required the foundation to install 6-foot-tall debris barriers and allow an on-site inspection by representatives of the environmental rights foundation. The barrier requirement stays in place for future years.

“We’re just glad the suit is over,” Marengo said. “We’ll deal with the terms next year.”

As part of the settlement, which is still subject to final City Council approval, Gonzalez’s firm will be paid $250,000 in attorney fees and costs. His law firm said he was out of the office Thursday and unavailable.